Cold air knives out of the cave as Poppy and Vael step onto the mountain path. Ahead, the ember shrine burns faintly through the haze, high above the switchback.
Vael pauses at the first bend, head snapping toward the ridgeline. Below them, shale rattles loose, not from their boots this time.
Vael
Hunters. They are on the slopes already.
Poppy
The shrine is closer than it looks.
A dark arrow thunks into the stone ahead, warning enough. Poppy and Vael flatten against the cliffside as shapes move among the rocks above the trail.
Vael
If they reach the shrine before us, the chain stays unbroken. Move now, and keep low.
Poppy surges forward with Vael beside her, the ascent turning from a search into a race. Every step now leads straight toward the ember shrine, and straight toward the chance to break the hunter chain.
“Do you wanna show them just how powerful you are now?”
SUCCESS (Legendary Willpower, rolled -1)
Poppy
Do you want to show them how powerful you are now?
Vael turns from the slope and lets the question settle. His shoulders loosen, then square, as if he is choosing how much of himself to reveal.
Vael
Yes. Let them see it.
He steps out from the cliff and lifts his head to the ridgeline. Dark scales begin to shimmer beneath his skin, catching the ember glow like banked coals waking.
Vael
If they fear me, they hesitate. If they hesitate, Poppy climbs.
The nearest shapes on the rocks go still. Loose shale skitters under their boots, then stops, as if the mountain itself is listening.
Vael
Stay close. I will carry the threat, and you keep the path.
Poppy and Vael move together again, but now the hunters above are reading the change in him, and the slope ahead opens under the ember light.
“I hold Vael's hand and march forward with him”
SUCCESS (Legendary Willpower, rolled -3)
Poppy closes her fingers around Vael's hand and steps with him onto the shale-slick path. His grip is hot and steady, and together they take the slope in one hard, shared stride.
The mountain answers with a crack of sliding stone under their boots. A small cascade of shale spills downslope, loud enough to carry, but Vael keeps moving and drags Poppy through it.
Vael
Their balance gives them away, but not their pace.
Poppy clears the worst of the loose rock in one savage push, and the pair gains the firmer spine of the trail. Behind them, a hunter shape shifts on the ridgeline, tracking the sound.
Vael
Hold fast, Poppy. I can bear the climb if you keep my side.
The handclasp holds, though the heat from Vael's scale-bright skin leaves a bright sting in Poppy's palm. Ahead, the mountain path bends toward a darker cleft, where the ember light thins and the shrine route waits.
From above, a fresh scrape of stone sounds, and a watcher on the ridge starts down.
“I stay with Vael all the way to the shrine”
SUCCESS (Superb Agility, rolled -1)